The Senate bill establishes sterile compounding and complex non-sterile compounding specialty licenses to be issued by the Board of Registration of Pharmacy. It also requires inspectors to conduct planned and unplanned inspections of pharmacies.

The vote follows passage of a similar measure by the Massachusetts House earlier this month.

The bills come in the aftermath of the outbreak linked to the now-shuttered New England Compounding Center in Framingham.

According to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 64 people have died and 750 others have been sickened in 20 states by a tainted steroid distributed by NECC.

Both bills now head to a conference committee to work out a single compromise version.